


What's Left Behind

by nickyz



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Grief/Mourning, M/M, Past Character Death, Post-Canon, Suicidal Thoughts, kaiba doesn't know how to grieve, kind of post DSOD, only slight hinting at that last one, yami doesnt actually appear it's just kaibas fake one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22817125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickyz/pseuds/nickyz
Summary: what do you do for someone who's forgotten how to grieve?
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	What's Left Behind

_8:36 A.M._ Yugi was a good six minutes late to his first work day. Life just never seemed to want to go his way unless it involved saving the world, which so far, had gone pretty well! If the ground still under his feet was anything to go by. A warm breeze fluttered past him, and it brought attention to his blonde fringe, which he’d been letting grow out. It wasn’t _too_ long, right? He didn’t want to walk into KaibaCorp looking like a slob… 

KaibaCorp. That is a foreign concept to him. When he’d video-chatted with Anzu two nights ago to tell her about his job opportunity, he could feel her jaw hit the floor, even if she was polite enough not to show it. No one in his friend group thought he’d get a job working with _Kaiba_ of all people, but thinking about it more, it does add up. Where else would he get a good job in the game industry? KaibaCorp was perfect for him, like it or not. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind at all.

Yugi had a feeling, though, that Mokuba must have put in a good word for him. Kaiba himself probably had Yugi’s name blacklisted in his buildings, as he’d been denied entry before when he dropped by for Mokuba’s 16th birthday party (which Mokuba had graciously invited him to). This entire ordeal was handled by only Mokuba so far, Yugi had no idea if the younger Kaiba was informing his elder or not. Probably. Definitely. Yugi tugged at his tight collar nervously, feeling the late spring heat much more intensely now. 

He had no reason to be scared of Kaiba. They’d all worked out their differences after Atem left for the afterlife, since Yugi refused to duel anymore following that. Even still, the weight of his deck bounced on his hip, on the belt he wore specifically to hold it. It almost felt like courtesy to have his deck present when around Kaiba, even if he didn’t plan on using it again. _Why were you up late last night perfecting it then, hm?_ Yugi’s own inner voice teased him. He wished it still sounded like Atem.

The time pushed up two more minutes by the time his frustratingly short legs got him to the mansion doors. He didn’t bother knocking or ringing the doorbell- because KaibaCorp didn’t have any. Everything was facial recognition this and virtual reality that, so he had reason to believe his face was extremely well-documented. Unsettling to think about? Yes! But he had no say in it.

Sure enough, the door swung open as _8:38_ turned into _8:39,_ and Yugi shivered as the temperature controlled air of the building rushed out to meet him. Mokuba stood there, looking frazzled. He hadn’t seen the kid, now actually almost an eighteen-year-old, in person in a very long time. All their latest business was done through phone and video calls. Very few emails, as KaibaCorp viewed them as primitive. Mokuba was all smiles, and he grabbed Yugi by the wrist roughly, yanking him inside.

“You’re late!” He scolded Yugi, but his smile didn’t waver. He was breathing rather heavily.

“Sorry, the bus-”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m late too.” Mokuba didn’t let go of Yugi’s hand as he forced him to walk, or fall over. “You were standing there for a whole minute! Seto will never let me hear the end of it if he sees the tape of that.” 

“Are you alright? You look, and sound, a little…” Yugi searched for a nice way to put it as the doors to the elevator swung open. He stumbled when Mokuba tugged him inside and frantically slammed buttons. 

“Stressed?” Mokuba’s eye twitched.

“Are you?”

“Extremely!” Mokuba beamed at him, then once the doors closed, he deflated. He dropped his hand away from Yugi and sunk against the wall of the elevator, which scared Yugi a bit because the walls were glass and they were hanging very precariously over the city of Domino. He let out a loud, drawn-out groan, and Yugi didn’t react. Sometimes vocalizing emotional pain was helpful. “You have no _idea_ what it’s like trying to run KaibaCorp without Seto.” Mokuba ran a hand through his styled hair, returning it to more of the messy state Yugi was used to seeing in his teenage years. “The employees respect me, but I’m also too nice!” 

“That’s not a bad thing, Mokuba…”

“When you’re trying to run a company that earns millions each year, it is.” He sighed. “Seto is better at breaking hearts than me.”

“Where _is_ Kaiba?” Yugi squatted down so they could be face-to-face, not wanting Mokuba to have to stand back up yet. Even with Mokuba sitting and Yugi still on his feet, Yugi found himself being eye-level with the other’s nose. Mokuba _was_ taller than him now, though still noticeably shorter than Kaiba. “I didn’t think of him as the type to take a day off.”

“He’s… not.” Mokuba averted his gaze by shutting his eyes. “He hasn’t been the same since he got back.”

“Back?” Yugi echoed. “I didn’t know he went out of the country.” He leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. 

Mokuba blinked at him, then stood up in a rush. “He didn’t tell you?!”

“Didn’t… tell me? What didn’t he tell me?” Yugi stood up too, more cautiously, his gut feeling suddenly strange and ready to turn over.

“Of course he didn’t, of course…” Mokuba pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yugi, I’ll just say it straight, I’m sorry if this upsets you.”

“Mokuba…?” Yugi took a step back.

Mokuba squared his shoulders. “Seto went to go see Atem.”

Yugi felt like the elevator dropped, and quickly looked out the window just to make sure that wasn’t what happened. No, they were still cruising to the top floor at a steady pace. This building was awfully large… “He didn’t.”

“He did.”

“No joke? You’re not lying to me?”

“Yugi, would I lie to you? Or even dare to joke about anything involving Atem?” Mokuba crossed his arms, and Yugi felt his breathing increase rapidly. His hand clutched at his shirt for something reassuring, but there was no Millennium Puzzle in that spot on his chest anymore. Running his other hand through his fringe, he felt like emptying his breakfast onto the pristine floor.

“Why.” Yugi swallowed hard, lest he puke. “Why would he do that?” 

“To duel.” Mokuba reached out and untied Yugi’s purple tie, then undid the first button of his shirt. He could see how flustered Yugi had become, and knew how hard it was to take a deep breath with a tight collar choking you. Though, Yugi _did_ have his actual choker on, still… Yugi thanked him through a deep gulp of air. “But I feel like it was more than that.”

“Me too.” Yugi sighed, his fist still resting on his chest. “Sorry about that. I almost puked on your floor.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know how hard it is to lose someone, Yugi.” Something shone deep in Mokuba’s dark eyes, an ancient and long-felt sadness, and suddenly Yugi remembered the boy was an orphan. He coughed into his fist and blinked a few times, looking away from Yugi and out the window. “We’ll be at the top soon. You _have_ to talk to Seto to be fully hired, ‘cause I don’t have that power yet, but…” 

“You’re afraid of how he’ll behave around me.”

“I am.” Mokuba looked back at Yugi when the door dinged, signaling the end of their journey into the sky. “Since he didn’t tell you about what he was doing, I assume he won’t bring it up in conversation, but if he _does_ …”

“I can handle it, Mokuba.” Yugi stepped out of the elevator, and got a very sharp look from the security guards until Mokuba followed after him. Mokuba stepped up to one of the smaller men, a hand on his hip.

“Seto’s still in his office, right? Someone’s here to see him.”

“I’m afraid not, Master Mokuba.”

Mokuba stumbled like someone had pulled a carpet out from under him, but he was standing on tile floor. “What?! Where is he?”

“He entered into the virtual reality testing area…” The man checked his watch for the time and date. “About three days ago now, with requests not to be disturbed.” 

“Why wasn’t I told about this?!” Mokuba cried, deep panic setting into both him and Yugi instantly. The man went to answer, but Mokuba wasn’t listening. “Oh God, I was so busy picking up his slack I didn’t even notice! No wonder he stopped answering my calls yesterday!” Mokuba undid his tie in record time, then hopped onto one foot and grabbed at his uniform shoes, sloppily tugging them off as fast as he could. The reason for this was explained when he booked it down the hallway, pausing in his frenzy only to grab Yugi’s forearm and pull him along too.

“This isn’t good!” Yugi called out. Mokuba’s hair was completely undone now, all the way back to its natural messy state. Yugi was having a moderate amount of trouble keeping up with the pace Mokuba was setting for them, but adrenaline was flowing through his bloodstream too fast for him to really notice nor care.

“No shit, Yugi!” Mokuba panted heavily, unwilling to slow down. Kaiba had already been by himself for three days, Mokuba would _not_ risk him going any longer. “God damn it!”

“Mokuba, I’m sure he’s okay-”

“There’s no way to guarantee that!” Mokuba rounded a corner so fast that Yugi got slammed into a wall, but neither stopped moving. Yugi just fumbled with his feet for a second trying to play catch-up. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Seto is not a mentally stable man! I _bet_ you he stopped taking his medication again!”

Yugi was a little bit surprised to learn that Kaiba was medicated, but that would explain why his temperament fluctuated so wildly. Yugi himself had to take something for his own anxiety, and _he_ wasn’t the one running a multi-billion dollar company every day of his life. “Wh- When was the last time he stopped?” Yugi stuttered, talking between gasping breaths.

“That time he and the other you almost got murdered by Anubis,” Mokuba recalled. “That sounds so weird saying it out loud.”

“Everything about our lives is weird.” Yugi laughed, then started coughing because he couldn’t breathe, and Mokuba let him go. Their lungs were burning, and they spent a good minute doubled over making up for all the lost breath. “Are we close? I feel like I just ran a marathon…”

“We didn’t run that far, we’re just really lacking in physical strength.” 

“Such is the life of a gamer.” Yugi said, then stood back to his full height and tried to unwrinkle his shirt. Yugi pointed to the end of the wide hallway, where there was a large mechanical door with the KaibaCorp logo plastered on it. “Is that where we’re going?”

“Yeah.” Mokuba left Yugi to walk by himself, speed-walking to the keypad on the wall. He first scanned a card that he fished out of his pocket, which prompted another scan. A bright green handprint. He slapped his hand against the screen, passing the second test with a ding. Another popped up, with a symbol resembling an eyeball. Leaning his face close and holding his hair back, a bright blue light examined his eye, and gave him a final resounding beep. The door began to slide open.

Yugi clicked his tongue. “Wow.” 

“Gotta have good security on this stuff, Yugi. Be prepared for two more doors.” 

“No way!”

* * *

“Finally!” Mokuba huffed and stomped when the third door granted him access. “I can’t stand how extra Seto is sometimes.”

“I’m guessing he designed the security?” Yugi offered the younger Kaiba.

“Of course. Doesn’t trust anyone else to do it well.” 

“Sounds like Kaiba.” He would have chuckled, but the air around them shifted in a way that made him feel uneasy. They were in a large, empty room, expansive enough that one would not risk running into a wall if things in the virtual world got too intense. There in the center stood Kaiba, engaged in something that Yugi could not see. He looked awful, his white coat thrown to the side and his hair a mess. 

“Yugi.” Mokuba put an arm out to stop him. “One step further and we’ll enter the Virtual Reality Field. It lets us see what the person out on the field is seeing once we’re within a certain distance of them.” 

“And you think I won’t like what I see.”

Mokuba nodded.

Yugi gave him a fierce look of determination, fists clenched at his side and his plum colored gaze drifting away to stare at Kaiba. “You stay here, in case this goes badly. You’ll have to stop the simulation, if you can.”

“I’ll probably have to hack into it, knowing Seto. I’ll get on that right now. Good luck.” Mokuba turned, readied himself to run, then paused. Yugi paused too.

“Mokuba?”

“Please be gentle with him.” With that said, he was bolting up the long staircase next to them. Presumably those led to the control area.

“...I will.” Yugi told empty air. It took him a little longer to work up the courage to step through the barrier. He was blasted with scorching desert heat once he was inside.

* * *

Yugi shielded his eyes from the newly-acquired sun, and knew by the feeling of sand beneath his feet where he was. Where _they_ were, he corrected, seeing Kaiba’s figure in the distance. It was much closer in the physical world than it was in here, but leave it to Kaiba to make everything harder for him. Sand stung his eyes and bit into his skin when the wind blew, and it was a fresh reminder of the time he’d spent in Egypt once before. It made Yugi's heart sink, because it confirmed what he would find when he reached Kaiba.

Regretting not asking Mokuba for some virtual reality-warping equipment of his own, he trekked through the sand in his uncomfortable shoes. They weren't made for any of this, just for sitting in a chair and looking pretty. He was rather surprised at how vivid and exact the environment was, it was _exactly_ like he remembered. Kaiba was waiting for Yugi and his friends back when they exited the tomb, so he must have committed the place to memory just as hard as Yugi did. The realization hurt a little. _Kaiba misses him just as much as the rest of us._

This was likely the only way Kaiba knew how to deal with grief, something he probably hadn't felt since his parents passed. Yugi would have been there for him in a heartbeat, if only Kaiba had told him.

"Yugi!"

Yugi jumped as Mokuba's breathless voice rang through the artificial sky. "Mokuba!"

"Yugi, I can't hear you without the VR equipment so don't bother answering. Just listen to me." Yugi swallowed, drenched in sweat and itchy sand. Something in the distance reached his ears, and he vaguely recognized it as the sounds of a Duel Monsters battle. "Seto can hear this too-" Mokuba stopped to gasp. " _Duck!_ " Yugi did so without hesitation, diving to the side just as a bright blue blast hit the ground where he was previously standing. 

"Holy shit-" Yugi struggled to stand up in the sand, feet and hands looking for purchase. He rolled again when he felt his hairs stand up all at once, and sure enough another blast landed next to him. Good thing he knew about that trick, or he would be a black stain on the virtual ground. " _Kaiba!_ " 

"Yugi! _Watch out!_ "

Yugi realized what a computer file must feel like as he was picked up by nothing and tossed through the air, Mokuba shouting things he couldn't hear over the rush of the wind. Clearly it was not him doing this. He was put down roughly, and it took a fair amount of effort to stay on two feet. His eyes were so full of sand now that he was actively crying as his body tried to get it out, but that didn't stop him from staring down the Kaiba that was suddenly in front of him. 

"Kaiba." Yugi said as level as he could, doing everything in his power to not turn around. He knew who was there. "This is not healthy."

Kaiba’s eyes were like blue fire, but he was not looking at Yugi. "Get out, Yugi."

"Not unless you're coming with me." Yugi marched through the sand, fisting his hand in Kaiba's black shirt to force his attention. Mokuba told him to be gentle, but in Kaiba's world, any sympathy would be seen as babying him. Yugi knew that. "You need to let him go." 

"Don't _touch_ me!" Kaiba shoved him back into the sand, and Yugi sputtered as it got into his mouth. Damn, this virtual reality stuff was realistic. "You don't know anything, you're just a _copy_. An empty shell with nothing to occupy the hole anymore."

" _I'm_ empty?" Yugi shot back, pointing a finger at him. "Look at you! Look at _this!_ Who the fuck _does_ this?" 

"Be quiet!" 

"No!" Yugi screamed at the top of his lungs, crawling through the sand on all fours to grab Kaiba’s ankles and force him to the ground too, pinning him there. "You don't respect me at all, did you forget I beat him? _I'm_ the King of Games now, Kaiba! The other me is _dead!_ "

"Yugi, I'm in! Turning off the simulation right now!" It was Mokuba.

Kaiba's eyes widened, his mouth open in a retort that never left his lips. He hit Yugi in the stomach with his duel disk, making him gasp in agony and fall to the side, freeing Kaiba.

" _No!_ " Yugi watched Kaiba cry out from his position in the sand, the tall man rushing towards Atem's digital replica. It was too late. Atem started to chip away into small pixels, as well as the world around him. He wore a smug expression, frozen in the middle of a card draw. Kaiba grabbed at the A.I, but this just made it explode into more code. "No!!"

Clutching his torso, Yugi stood up.

"Bring him back! Bring him back _right now!_ " Kaiba shouted at the sky, and Yugi could _feel_ Mokuba's whimper. 

"I'm sorry, big bro." Mokuba whispered, and then the sky fizzled out into white. Kaiba said nothing, watching the rest of Atem disappear, and Yugi limped over to him. It was easier now without all that sand.

"Kaiba."

"Why?" Kaiba turned to him. "Why do you keep taking him away from me?"

"It was his time, Kaiba." Yugi grabbed Kaiba’s duel disk with both hands and unfastened it, tossing it to the ground. It clacked loudly then shattered into nothing. "He waited 3,000 years to go home." 

"I want to go with him." Kaiba didn't have to explain further for Yugi to catch the implication, and he grabbed the other's wrist sharply.

"Me too, but we can't." Yugi wiped the wet tracks from his cheeks, unsure if the sand was still irritating him, or if it was a reaction to seeing Atem again. "We have lives to live first. _You_ have Mokuba. He's been awfully stressed without you."

"Mokuba…" Kaiba muttered guiltily, having disregarded him until now. He hadn't done that in a long time.

"When we die, hopefully later rather than sooner, I have a feeling we'll end up in the same place as him." Yugi moved his hand down to Kaiba's, and held it. He gave a lopsided smile. "And if I die first, I'll wait. We'll find him together." 

Kaiba's eyes searched his face, as if to ask if Yugi was telling the truth. Yugi nodded. Kaiba looked away.

"I'm… envious of him, Yugi."

"How so?" 

"He gets to move on. He doesn't have to worry about what he left behind." Kaiba scowled. "He was always selfish."

"Don't be like that. I know for a fact he's probably worrying his ass off about us.” Yugi said sternly. “Trust me on this, he lived in my head for a year." Kaiba snorted, and Yugi let himself smile. "He didn't want us to chase after him like this. He just wanted to be remembered, that's all. The least you could do is respect a dead man's request."

"Yugi…" Kaiba wanted to keep refusing.

"Learn to let go, Kaiba. Being jealous of a corpse won't do you any good." He punched Kaiba lightly in the shoulder. Then, they were freed from the white void, back in the testing room, with Mokuba running down the stairs.

"I…" Kaiba wet his extremely dry lips. "I hope you know how to get through Duat." Yugi wasn't sure if that was a joke on Kaiba's part or not, but he laughed anyways.

"You did your research, huh? I should've known." They were still holding hands, but had to let go when Mokuba barrelled into his brother like a freight train. Kaiba caught him easily, still beating his height by a fair amount. 

"You asshole! Don't do that again!" Mokuba squeezed him, and Kaiba let him cry into his turtleneck, rubbing his back. His face was full of shame that only Yugi could see. Mokuba finished up quickly with a grunt, wiping his cheeks. "Ugh, you stink!" Yugi burst out laughing, while Kaiba just frowned. "Come on, you need food, water, and several baths, mister." Mokuba tugged him by his arm like he had with Yugi. Yugi followed them, but slowed down when Kaiba shot him a look.

“Yugi.”

“Yeah?”

“...Thank you.” 

Yugi smiled again. “Anytime.”

* * *

"This is a pretty weird interview." Yugi leaned his head on his hand, sitting across the table from Kaiba, who was wolfishly eating the quickest meal the chefs could make. He raised an eyebrow, chewing.

"Do you want to be hired or not?" 

Yugi held up his hands. "I'm just teasing! Anyways, does that mean it's a yes?" 

"Only if you say yes to _my_ proposal." Kaiba smirked.

"Mm, and what might that be?" Yugi returned the gesture.

"Go out with me."

Yugi's smirk dropped away, and he blinked in shock. Kaiba did too, fork pausing in the air. Clearly, he had not planned on being so forward about it. He choked a little on his food when Yugi seductively leaned over the table. "Took you long enough, no?" 

He sat back down when Kaiba was sufficiently red-faced, and was in the process of crossing his legs and arms smugly when someone whistled _loudly._ Mokuba was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Yugi got his own taste of embarrassment, flushing. 

"Get a room, you lovebirds."

" _Mokuba!"_ Kaiba got out of his seat, and Mokuba ran away laughing. Yugi laughed too. What a great family to be let into.

**Author's Note:**

> this is preeetty bad, and the ending is awkward, but it was a fic i wrote real fast for a school assignment a few months ago  
> did i really turn this in? yes i did and it sucked, never do that
> 
> edit: adding my twitter to all my fics so you can follow me [here](https://twitter.com/chaosblast_)


End file.
